Threat of Hell, Promise of Heavan

[Pygoscelis]

please let's not put God with Santa, the tooth fairy or Easter bunny or other fictional characters in the same category. It is disrespectful in so man ways I have lost count.

I would like to remind you that it wasn't I who brought up the Santa analogy.

 

[Abdul Fattah]

I would like to remind you that it wasn't I who brought up the Santa analogy.

Yes you're right I was the guilty one. About the coal in the stocking not being a treath you might be right, I wasn't aware of that, apearantly santa's become nicer. The Santa Claus mythology comes from Saint Nicolas, who is still celebreted here in Belgium and in the Netherlands. But the story is a lil bit difrent he's not celebrated on christmas but rather on 6th of december, and although the reward for the good children is teh same as with Santa Claus. Saint Nicolas is much stricter with the children, he has a whole lot of black slaves (the legend comes from a time where nobody here cared about racism) who kidnapped the bad children in a big bag and spanked them. Anyway, the point I was trying to make was: Only the naughty children consider the santa claus story to be a threath, and even if they don't believe in it, at night they might not enjoy a perfect night's sleep wheras the good children who have nothing to fear don't feel threathened at all by the story and who are ectually exited for all the candy and toys.

You are running in circles. You open a threath in interreligious discussion to depicture the warning for the afterlife as a repugnant "trick" to get gullable people to follow the rules; and then proudly continue to defend disbelief by saying the disbeliever does not fear these tools of mass manipulation. What I was trying to show you is how that argument is completely relevant to interpretation and could easely be defeated by the counterargument: "It's not a threath, it's a promise."

 

[جوري]

the conundrum is that these same people who find religion and its rules repugnant and juvenile are the same ones who meet with the most obsequious manner their bosses just hoping for a promotion or a raise or a better dental plan, or for a two week vacation slot...........

 

[Abdul Fattah]

How is that a conundrum?

 

[جوري]

How is that a conundrum?

???

In other words... they find what religion dictates ridiculous, but not what their bosses dictate --or what they do to earn a living....... They believe religion focuses too much on reward and punishment yet unable to assimilate that to their every day affairs being exactly the same, if they wished to have a house, a car a dental plan and a good retirement pension......
A person needs to work hard at anything if they wished to attain the fruits of their labor.... Simple!

 

[Abdul Fattah]

Yes I know that, but the answer to that is simple; it's matter of clarity. The reward for religion is not as clear and obvious to them as the reward rom their jobs. So I don't consider it a conundrum. But then again, perhaps it's just because I used to be an atheist that I understand their motives.